


Red Lines

by Eladriel



Series: Yin & Yang [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angel Hunt - Freeform, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF!Aziraphale, BAMF!Crowley - Freeform, Demon Hunt, Established Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Established Relationship, Fighting for what is right, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hellfire, Holy Water, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Our Side, Temporary Character Death, The Ineffable Plan (Good Omens), Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-06-02 08:48:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19438006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eladriel/pseuds/Eladriel
Summary: Unbeknown to Heaven and Hell a new faction had formed which is hunting down Angels and Demons to release a new and more powerful force on earth.Will Aziraphale and Crowley find a way to stop them before being hunted as well?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So here comes the continuation of "Black Lines". It is recommended to read that story first to understand some parts of this one, but it can also be read as a stand alone.

The Demon was not only afraid he was completely terrified. Fear was a rare feeling for any Demon making it, when experienced, on of the strongest feelings their capable of.

His hands were bound over his head, silver glittering ropes holding them forcefully in place while his feet were chained to the ground. He stood in the middle of a complicate pattern that was craved into the stone floor, though it seemed to be a religious sign it was nothing that belonged to heaven or hell. It didn’t send out a positive energy field like heavenly signs would do nor negative energy as the ones from hell used to do, but an energy that send shivers down the Demons spine and let him unable to move with a fear he never suffered before. 

“Please” he whispered, “let me go” Demons don’t beg for their lives but something about this place, an indescribable premonition told him that his existence would end here. He felt small and vulnerable, feelings he had never experienced. It confused him, he wanted it to stop, he wanted to leave this place and feel like himself again.

The lines on the ground started shimmering as water started to run through them, flowing from the outer circles slowly to the center. 

“Let me go” he pleaded again into the empty and dark stone hall that was only illuminated by a flickering light directly above him. He still didn’t understand how they captured him, they were only humans after all. Only Angels and Demons were able to successfully catch an restrain other Demons and Angels; humans had tried from time to time to capture and exorcise them, but even the most faithful priest hadn’t accomplished more than a slight headache on a Demon.

But as these humans had approached him he had felt his whole inner strength crumble and the inner connection every Demon could feel to hell and every Angel to heaven being cut off leaving him disoriented and unable to perform any sort of miracle. With his guard put down they somehow managed to get him here with no way to escape.

He could sense the holy water as it came closer and closer to him, filling up the pattern on the ground leaving it lightly glowing. His screams went unheard as the holy water gathered in the center of the pattern crawling up his feed consuming him until he was completely gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about writing longer chapters this time, but I find it still easier to keep the chapters short but more frequent.   
> I hope you like it anyway ;-)

Crowley sat up with a suppressed yell on his lips. He had just been in the state between sleep and being awake where the dreams fuse with your own thoughts and can go into the strangest directions as a sensation run through his body that he hadn’t felt for a long time.

The bedroom was barely lit, the sun just sent their first rays through the windows. He turned around to see that Aziraphale didn’t lay beside him. It wasn’t unusual for the Angel to be up early he never used to sleep much, only did it to spend some more time with Crowley, but while the Demon mostly slept through the whole night, the Angel slept mostly just for three or four hours. Some days Aziraphale would return to the bed before Crowley awoke so they could spend the morning in bed together. 

It took Crowley some minutes to sort his racing thoughts, the feeling must have been part of the dream he just had before waking up, he concluded it couldn’t be anything else. He was not able to feel that anymore.

Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep he stood up and walked still yawning to the kitchen. Since he had move into the bookshop its interior had changed a little. Crowley would have never asked Aziraphale to get rid of any of his books, but one day the Angel returned home and found new stairs leading him down into a big warehouse where all his books that didn’t find space in the shop were stored in special shelfs that protected them against everything, even hellfire as Crowley had promised. There was also enough free space to store all the books that would be written in the next 1000 years. Aziraphale had spent days down there registering, ordering and reordering the books until he had been completely satisfied with it. But he loved it. He had brought his most important and valuable books here, all the ones he couldn’t stand humans to touch.

With all the books gone from the rooms of the flat above the bookshop Aziraphale found that, he in fact had a living room and that it was much bigger than he had remembered it. He had also found a new bed, Crowley had said that the old one had just been to small but had also confessed later that there were too many bad memories connected to the old one. The Angel was surprised that the bed Crowley picked fit unexpectedly well to the rest of the flat, but even if it wouldn’t have he wouldn’t have cared as he was just glad that Crowley had finally completely recovered from the attack and his nearly death.

Every morning, regardless of the time Crowley woke up, a hot cup of coffee stood on the kitchen counter waiting for him and every morning it put a smile on the Demons face. He hadn’t figured out yet how Aziraphale was doing it, if he was sensing when he was about to wake up or if he just kept it hot half of the night. Warming his hands on the mug he strolled over to Aziraphales little office where he found the Angel brooding over some papers.

“Good morning Angel” he murmured.

“Good Morning Love” Aziraphale smiled brightly, rose from his chair and pressed a soft kiss to the Demons lips “already up? It’s quite early, isn’t it?”

“Had a weird dream. Couldn’t go back to sleep.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“I would if I could remember it. I just remember that it was somehow weird.” That wasn’t lie, he hated lying to Aziraphale, but it was the truth that he couldn’t remember the dream, only the sensation that woke him and he had no idea how to describe it to someone.

“What are you working on?” he tried to move the topic.

“Oh, newspapers and stuff. Found that some disquietingly events happened during the last months and they seem to be somehow connected but I can’t get a grip on it, it just seems strange. I just decided to look at all of them again, maybe I can find something.”

“Strange Events? Did somebody told you about them or how did you find them?”

“No, I just kept my eyes and ears open at everything that could indicate activities from heaven and hell, didn’t want any more surprises.” He smiled slightly.

“Show me” Crowley grabbed a blanked and sat in chair next to Aziraphales “Maybe we see more with four eyes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, ok this was just some domestic fluff, we will come to the action soon ;-)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, something to read for the weekend :-)

“Where did you get all these?” Crowley asked stunned.

“I subscribed them” Aziraphale shrugged his shoulders.

“You subscribed the newspaper from hell?”

“Well … technically you subscribed it.”

“I … so what happened to staying under the radar, not attracting attention and all that?” Crowley had recognized that the Angel had become less careful about being recognized and remembered from their lots since he had been attacked but subscribing a daily newspaper, printed in Heaven and Hell, to their home address surprised him.

“It’s not they don’t know where we are living, and after all we only do really needed miracles which also doesn’t affect others and as we both know they don’t care what we do to each other as long as we don’t bother them or interfere with their plans.” Crowley hid a smile at Aziraphales words, ‘needed miracles’ was a term that had been bent more than several times since the apocalypse hadn’t happened.

“Ok, so what did you found?”

Aziraphale gathered together all the pieces he cut out of all the different newspapers “It is not something I can put a finger on, there are only short paragraphs or even only sentences telling me that something is wrong. You see here, I marked it!” He moved on of the pieces to Crowley.

“And then you see here this one, and the same happened here.”

Soon Crowley sat in front of pile of small paper pieces trying to make sense to anything written from it while Aziraphale was constantly talking. “Angel, stop! – How about you explain me in your words what you are thinking is going on.”

Aziraphale took a deep breath “I think Heaven and Hell are under attack. Someone is killing Angels and Demons and whoever is doing it is coming closer to London.”

“That’s not possible.” Crowley laughed, the Angels for sure had read to many scary stories in his books. Sure, he had told him that he was thinking that one day Heaven and Hell had to fight against humanity, but not today and for sure not in the next years, humans didn’t have the abilities to harm any Angel or Demon. As Aziraphale throw him a reproachful look Crowley asked, “Are you sure?”

“I don’t know, quite I guess. It began nearly a month ago, I just heard a rumor that someone had successfully exorcised a Demon. It was even published in one of this human newspaper. First, I didn’t put much attention to it, I mean exorcism doesn’t work, all the harm a human could do to a Demon is maybe a headache when they are really clever they might be able to deal a scratch or two. We both know that Demons just play along and put up a show to convince the humans that they were successfully destroyed or exorcised so that they can move on with their business undisturbed.”

“I know all that angel, get to the point.” He knew how human exorcisms worked he had been a victim of one or two some hundred years ago. He had just used the opportunity for a short nap when he had awoken again the humans had left him and he had left the city. Nothing easier then that.

“This Demon which ostensively had been exorcised just vanished. He is still missing.”

“Missing? How do you know he is missing?”

“Here. It is just a sentenced at the end of a longer article” he pointed at one of the slips “Hell doesn’t want to admit that they lost track of one of theirs but if you know, it is telling you, that they don’t know where he is.”

He pulled out some more slips “and this is not the only time it happened and not only in Hell. Mentions of exorcisms come next to news of Demons or Angels missing. The first incident happened somewhere in Germany, the followings from other parts of Europe but the last three happened right here outside of London.”

“Do you really believe humans somehow found out how to kill Demons and Angels? I mean even if they figured out about the effect of holy water they would need to get the real stuff. I could drink what humans store in their neighborhood church as holy water without anything happening. And getting the real stuff is not that easy, I must know, I tried once.”

Aziraphale frowned. He remembered the night clearly when he decided to finally give the Demon the holy water he had requested some years ago. Holy water that was effective against Demons could only be produced by Angels. Some churches the Angels found important enough fill their basins with real holy water. Those churches where well protected by the Angels, which was the reason why Aziraphale had prevented Crowley from robbing the church, if he would have been caught the Angels would have destroyed him and as long as Aziraphale existed he would do anything to keep Crowley alive.

“I still don’t know how you were able to find out where to find it” Aziraphale murmured.

“And Hellfire is even more complicated to get. You can only get it from hell or have a Demon create it and yes Demons hate Angels, but they would never give Hellfire in human hands. Beside that humans wouldn’t be able to keep it burning long enough to cause any damage.”

“I think we have only to options here, go somewhere where they won’t find us or stop them before they find us.” Aziraphale cut him off.

“You want to fight them?” Crowley was amazed. Aziraphale hadn’t considered to leave this planet when it was about to be destroyed, so he wouldn’t leave it now.

“The sooner we get rid of them the sooner I can stop worrying about you dying again.”

\- < > \- < > -

The Angel was running for his life, trying to escape the heavy steps following him, trying to find a way through the labyrinth of high shelves in the nearly dark warehouse.

With his celestial powers cut off he could feel his too fast heartbeat; his panting breath was too loud in his own ears giving his position to his pursuer. He didn’t know who was following him he hadn’t seen him or her or whatever it was. He had just seen its shadow following him.

He should just turn around and approach the person, he should just ask what it wanted but something inside of him told him that he should run. That he shouldn’t stop because if the steps finally catch him he would be destroyed.

He had to find a way out of here, he had to find a door, a window, something to leave this place. He considered using his wings to fly on top of one of the empty shelfs to have a better picture of his surroundings but the aisles where to small to fully spread his wings. Even if he wanted he wouldn’t find the way back to the door where he came though anymore, to many corners had passed and at too many crosses he had changed directions.

He stumbled around the next corner pressing his back against the shelve, trying to catch his breath and to listen if the footsteps were still following him. The silence that embraced him was far more frightening than the constant steps indicating he was followed. Holding his breath, he desperately tried to figure out what was going on.

He could feel the presence of the fire before he could see the flickering shine moving towards him. Radiating a heat that was melting his body and burning down his soul without even touching him while it crept nearer following an invisible path through the labyrinth.

Horrified he observed the flaming snake crawling nearer towards him, only a meter before it touched him he found the feeling back in his legs and started running again.

The flames followed him, the metallic shelves radiating the heat making him sweat. Standing in the middle of a crossroad he realized that he wouldn’t escape, the flames coming closer from all sites.

“Please” he begged “let me go.”

The flames surrounded him, flickered at his feet. The smoke poisoning his lungs.

He screamed unheard as they burned him down until nothing was left of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like it, hope to get to the next chapter on sunday :-)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, one day too late, but to make it up to you it is a longer one ;-)

Crowley was pacing through the flat. Aziraphale should have been back a few hours ago. It wasn’t an uncommon thing for the Angel to forget the time because he was distracted by a new book he found while strolling through the stores or because he decided to have a snack in a new restaurant and ended ordering half of the menu.

In the morning they had left the house together, Crowley had agreed on going to get some groceries, most points on the list had been wine and tea but as Aziraphale new hobby was to improve his cooking skills there had also been some vegetables on it.

He didn’t understand why he couldn’t just miracle the things into existence. Aziraphale had insisted on buying them in a store what had ended with Crowley being lost in the aisle with the vegetables trying to find out how an avocado looked like. After a while he had just bought random fruits and vegetables in different colors hoping that the Angel wouldn’t notice that he had no clue about what he had bought.

Of course, he enjoyed every lunch and dinner with his Angel and not only because of the company he in fact enjoyed eating as well but he never spent a single thought about how the dishes were created and what they contained. Aziraphale ordered for him most of the time anyway and it seemed that the Angel even knew better what he liked than himself.

Aziraphale had left to order some new books. Since the apocalypse hadn’t happened and they didn’t have to do any jobs or tasks for heaven and hell anymore, Aziraphale had decided to actually sell some books to have something to do over the day. He had moved all his first editions and precious books into his new basement and had filled his store with a mixture of antique and modern books to attract more customers.

The number of customers per day had only increased slightly as he still hadn’t implemented regular opening hours. Even if they technically had nothing to do anymore they where somehow busy all the time. Latest with trying to hunt down a group of people who where ostensively killing Angels and Demons.

Crowley had found himself the last four months reading the newspaper of hell, though he had found some interesting news inside, being away from head office for such a long time meant also missing all the interesting gossip, he hadn’t found any indications of attacks or strange incidents.

Aziraphale had read the newspaper from heaven and had also spend a lot of time reading the human newspapers but he also found nothing that gave any indications about a threat. After three months without any news even Aziraphale had at agreed that they should let the topic be. That maybe he had interpreted to much into the articles he had found earlier because of his fear that they were still not safe. Still they had kept the habit of reading the newspaper every morning.

Crowley stopped at the window watching the people passing by, hoping to catch a glance at blond curls or a familiar coat. It had already become dark outside and the Angel hadn’t answered any of his calls. “Ah, fuck it” he murmured and reached for his smartphone. He had sworn to himself to never use this functionality after Aziraphale had once located his position shortly after he had survived the attack and had found out that he had been in his old flat.

On that evening Crowley had come home to a crying Angel who had thought that he wasn’t happy anymore, that he wanted to end their relationship and that he wanted to move back into his old flat.

The reason why Crowley had really been in his old flat, which he practically still owned because they never sold it though it was meanwhile empty, had been to hide the present he had organized for Aziraphales birthday. As they didn’t have real birthdays, as they were technically not born, but wanted to participate in the human tradition they had picked birthdays for each other somewhere in the early 1700. Crowley had picked the 28th of November for the Angels birthday, it was the perfect weather to spend the evening in front of a crackling fireplace with a good bottle of wine and the Angel was always more cheerful when it came close to Christmas.

It had taken him nearly the whole night to calm the Angel down and to convince him, that he was not planning to move back into his old flat. He had even insisted on deleting the location software from both of their phones to make sure that this kind of misunderstanding would never happen again but Aziraphale had begged him to keep it just in case that something happened. As usual he couldn’t deny the Angel anything and had kept the software but had decided for himself he would never use it.

In this moment he was glad that he hadn’t deleted it understanding why the Angel sometimes just needed to know where he was. He opened the app and stared at the screen while the phone was loading the current position of his Angel tapping his foot nervously. The damn thing was working too slow.

“That’s strange” he mumbled and stared at the display “where is he?” he tried to figure out what part of London the map was showing and zoomed in “Is that? Oh fuck!” he cursed louder than he intended to and left the shop running to his car.

Aziraphale cursed silently. His curiosity had led him into unpleasant situation a lot of times already, but this was not only unpleasantly this was dangerous. He had told Crowley in the morning that he would be out ordering some new books for his shop as he still refused to do it over the internet. Not because he didn’t like the internet, he appreciated all the possibilities it offered, but when he ordered in the big shops he always had the opportunity to stroll through all the books and read one or the other or buy one for himself. This morning the trip to store had been short, he had just handed in the order and quickly left to make it in time to his other appointment he hadn’t told Crowley about.

He hoped that Crowley would like the idea of celebrating their one-year anniversary as much as he did. Two months ago, he had already booked their favorite table at the Ritz in the classical way as he wanted this to be prepared the right way and not be miracled. He had also started to teach himself some cooking skills. He had told the Demon he needed something to do in his now more than enough free time but actually he was practicing on Crowleys favorite breakfast. Though they were living together they didn’t had breakfast very often as they usually just went out for lunch or waited until dinner. But for that day he wanted to create the perfect breakfast for them both.

He liked the human tradition of organizing presents for anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas and all the other occasions and it had taken him a while to figure out the perfect present for Crowley. As the Demon could get literally everything he wanted with a snap of his fingers it needed to be something that he didn’t knew he wanted until Aziraphale gave it to him.

On his way back from the artist he had met with to talk over some details for the present he had overheard a conversation from a group of humans that made him follow them. They talked about holy water and hellfire and though he only got parts of what they were talking about he had the feeling in his gut that they could be the hint he and Crowley were looking for in the last months.

He couldn’t explain why he had kept following them alone and completely unprepared, but he had been too lost in his thoughts and too concentrated on listening to their conversation and making sense of everything. He hadn’t noticed that they entered a closed subway station until he had already taken the first steps down. It hadn’t been the one he had used to enter hell to safe Crowley but when he had become aware of his surroundings again he had realized that they had led him to some kind of a Demon meeting point. There was no direct connection to hell inside of this subway station, but he had been able to tell by the smell and by the feeling in the air that there had been at least six demons down there.

“We’re far enough to close it up!” he heard one of the group, apparently the leader, say and realized that one of them turned around. He cursed silently an in a blink of an eye the Angel turned himself invisible, this would just work for the humans the Demons would still be able to see him.

The guy who had turned around started to bind a thin rope through the corridor closing it with a wide meshed net.

Aziraphale stepped closer after the group disappeared into the darkness and inspected the rope. It seemed that it had been dipped in holy water and somehow, they had managed to keep the effect onto the rope even after it dried. But there was also something else that was making the effect of the holy water even stronger, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

He hesitated for a moment unsure if it would be better to leave but went on to follow the group deeper into the subway station as he suddenly felt a heavy blow on the back of his head before his vision blurred and faded to black.

“You really thought we didn’t notice you following us?” Aziraphale heard when he slowly gained consciousness again. He groaned, his head hurt, what had they hit him with he wondered.

“Come on” one of them pulled him to his feet and pushed him forward “we’re not here for your kind, we will deal with you later, but you can watch and see what will happen to you as soon as we are finished with the others.”

Aziraphales head was spinning; he tried to move his arms and realized they were bound to his back. He couldn’t concentrate enough to miracle them free something kept his mind from focusing. *What have they done?* he still wondered.

He had to find a way to get out of here. He shouldn’t have followed them, he should have gone home to Crowley, tell him what he had witnessed, and they could have faced it together. But maybe it was better this way, these guys were hunting demons. Crowley is at least safe for the moment. He just needed to find a way to escape and then they could leave and find a place where they could be safe.

“Hey guys” the leader of the group called into the room that opened in front of them.

Eight Demons were sitting in a circle talking to each other, drinking and laughing. As they heard the voice calling to them they turned around obviously surprised. The one sitting nearest to them stood up and walked in their direction. Aziraphale knew his face he had seen him when he visited hell in Crowleys body.

“What do you want human?” the Demon snarled “And what is this Angel doing here?”

“That is very easy” the leader smiled “we are here to end your existence.”

The Demons laugh echoed from the tiled walls “I would really like to see you try.”

He was going to wave his hand to start an attack against the humans but the leader of them was quicker, he drew a weapon and fired at the Demon who fall lifeless to the ground and started slowly to melt.

The other Demons stared at them in shock, jumping to their feet and backing away.

“Bullets filled with holy water” the leader explained. “We invented them our self. Of course, we had to power up the holy water a little bit to make sure that this small amount is enough to kill you. The fear of Demons is powerful you must know. We tested it very thorough and it will destroy everything that has just a little bit of demonic blood inside it.”

The Demons were first unsure how to react to the death of one of theirs but came to a conclusion quickly and within seconds a heated battle began. Aziraphale was pushed to the floor by one of the humans, he tried to get back into a position where he could see what was happening around him. He heard more gunshots and found six more Demons lying dead on the floor slowly melting into oblivion.

The last of the demons was still alive but captured and tied up.

“What are they?” the Demon asked Aziraphale.

“Humans.”

“Humans? How are humans able to do this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Prepare the circle” the leader ordered the others who began to crave a circle with complicated patterns inside into the ground. Aziraphale had lost all track of time but he guessed that they had been already several hours down here when the circle was finished.

Two of the humans came and grabbed the demon by the shoulders pulling him to the center of the circle.

“What are they doing?” the Demon cried.

“I don’t know.” Aziraphale whispered expecting the worst.

Aziraphale watched the procedure in horror. Sure, he wasn’t very fond of Demons in general but seeing him secured in the middle of ritual circle shaking in fear and begging for his life, while holy water slowly crept near him raised an indescribable feeling inside of him.

The humans had disappeared deeper into the station leaving Aziraphale the only person to watch the Demon suffer. He could see the fear in his eyes and in this moment, it became clearer to him than ever that Demons were not so different. They had been Angels once.

“Angel” he heard a familiar voice call him. Crowley stood in the entrance, his eyes wandering from Demon that was screaming in pain as he was consumed by the holy water to the bound Aziraphale who was laying on the floor looking at him with horrified eyes.

“Crowley no” the Angel cried “run, you have to leave.”

He heard the gunshot before he could see the human step out of the shadows. A red spot formed on Crowleys chest before he fell to the ground.

“Crowley” Aziraphale screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I decided to make a little time jump to fast forward to the action.  
> In that way we can have the angst and the more angst a little sooner ;-)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this took so long ... But I combined two chapters, thats why the total chapter count decreased. I'm not completly satisfied with it, but I was reworking it again and again until I decided that it good now as it is.

Crowley felt the heavy impact of the bullet, it knocked him from his feet and pressed all air out of his lungs. Whoever had fired the gun was a good shooter as the bullet had struck his heart precisely. He tried to get up again, being shot was something that his body should heal within seconds even a damaged heart wasn’t a problem for him, but he found himself unable to move. Though Aziraphale always mocked him, that he would discorporate them with his style of driving, they both new that it was highly impossible that a simple car crash would have this effect. 

He wondered what he had been shot with for a moment, as he looked around as much as his limited vision would allow him he became aware of the dead Demons around him, the bodies had already started to melt. He could smell the holy water that dripped out of his wound. He would have cursed loudly if he would have been able too, the Angel had a bad habit in getting himself into dangerous situations but this one was for sure on top of the list.

This people had managed to get rid of a complete group of Demons and that Aziraphale was till alive just meant they hadn’t come to him yet. He felt his finger tingling as they the water streamed around them leaving them a bit numb. Only then he realized that most of his body was still functioning beside the fact that it had been exposed to a very high dose of holy water from the inside and the outside. Sure, he couldn’t move, breath or speak but he could still hear, feel and see and he wasn’t in any pain. He remembered the feeling of being trapped in his own body that hast lasted for days the last time he had been exposed to holy water. That it had a far less effect on him this time made him quite optimistic, being only paralyzed instead of killed and destroyed was in fact a relief.

“Crowley!” he heard the Angels desperate scream.

Crowleys eyes searched for the Angel, as he couldn’t move his head, only his eyes a little bit, it was quite difficult to focus on him as he sat on the very corner of his vision. Even a little bit blurred he could see the pain in the Angels face.

He wanted to call him, he wanted to tell him that he was alright, that he just needed a moment to get his body to move again, that he was not dead but all he could do was stare as the Angel fought against the bindings and listen to his sobs and screams. He had to shake off the effects of the holy water, he needed to move again, he had to fight it. He had to prevent Aziraphale from doing something completely stupid.

“NO!” he heard the Angel scream again and watched him ripping of his bindings. He could sense Aziraphales anger and despair flooding through the room as he stumbled to his feet a flaming sword appearing in his hand out of nowhere. If Crowley hadn’t been so worried about his Angel he would have admired his strength and willpower, though he knew Aziraphale for so many years, the Angel never failed to amaze him.

One of the humans was dead before he had time to realize what just had happen, the second followed only a few seconds after. Crowley saw the confusion in the Angels eyes as he stumbled through the room to reach Crowleys body.

Crowley saw the small ball of flickering light before he saw the two humans appearing out of the darkness. He could feel the destroying heat of hellfire even over the distance causing a totally different panic to raise in him. Aziraphale was still not aware of the threat that had appeared behind him. He needed to warn him, but he still couldn’t move.

He tried to gather all his strength, his heart came back to action doing a shallow beat and another, the feeling returned to his fingers, and air filled his lungs again.

“Aziraphale” he called at the same moment he heard the swishing noise of the burning arrow.

He wanted to look away, he wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. He saw the joy and relief in the Angels eyes being replaced by surprise and an unbearable pain as the flames of hell covered his coat first and then his whole body. He could see the Angels soundless screams as the fire turned the usually white skin into a deep red and leaving it black and burned. He saw the Angel sinking to his knees as his burning legs couldn’t support him anymore. He reached out to touch the Angel, but he was still to far away, not knowing if he was already able to walk again he crawled over to the still burning figure.

“Aziraphale” he whispered at the lifeless body which was lying on the ground, covered in burned clothes and burned skin not showing any reaction anymore as the flames slowly faded.

The flames that just burned down the Angel seemed to burn inside of Crowley, a rush of pure hate run through his veins like he had never felt it before. His yellow eyes were glowing dangerously as he rose to his feet moving slowly to the two humans who stared at him in utter confusion.

“Why haven’t you killed him?” one of them asked horrified.

“I don’t know, I shot him, he should be dead.” Answered the other.

“You will wish you killed me.” Crowley said in a dark and threatening voice.

Crowley heard a shot fill the room and felt a light sting in his shoulder, without looking away he walked further towards the two humans who stared at him in fear.

“It isn’t working. The holy water isn’t working.”

He heard another swooshing sound and found his clothes catching fire. He embraced the heat the flames left on his skin, he knew that they made him look even more dangerously and at the moment he savored the fear of the humans.

The humans died far too quickly for Crowleys liking. The last of the group had appeared as he had heard the others plea for their life’s, but Crowley had shown them no mercy as he broke their necks with a simple move of his hand. Crowley had always avoided to kill when it was not necessary out of defense and had always given second chances when asked to, but he had still the Angels eyes in his mind as he had burned and therefore listened to none of their pleas and begs.

He came back to his senses a few minutes later, kneeling over Aziraphales burned body surrounded by eight dead Demons and five dead humans.

“I’m sorry Angel” he whispered, tears running down his face as he carefully let his fingers move over Aziraphales face “I’m so sorry.”

Aziraphale was gone. Crowley had never felt an emptiness like this before, the Angel had been by his site for over 6000 years and in a blink of an eye he was gone and would never return. God had taken him from him. He had thought that she couldn’t hurt him anymore than she already did. When he had fell he had thought that there couldn’t be any greater pain than feeling his body burn but his heart being shattered in a million pieces without any chance to put it back together was an even greater agony. He couldn’t bear staring at Aziraphales destroyed body. The Angel had always been full of life and joy and seeing him burned with dead eyes was something he couldn’t handle. He couldn’t stay here but he didn’t even know where he should go to either. He couldn’t go back to the bookshop, he couldn’t go back to their home alone. 

He found himself in his old and empty flat, sitting on the cold floor and staring at the wall. He didn’t know how he got here, he didn’t know when he arrived or what day or time it was, nothing of it mattered anymore. Aziraphale was gone and he couldn’t see any purpose in his existence anymore. She had taken everything from him again, even the only way to end his existence. Neither holy water nor hellfire would kill him, maybe if he just sat here he could silently fade from this world.

While he sat there, not moving at all the emptiness slowly faded and was replaced by anger. Anger at humans, anger at himself anger at God. He should never had fallen, he had just asked questions, he had wanted to make sure that God had thought her decisions through, that she was sure that she was doing the right thing. Why did he had to fall for that? He didn’t expect god to answer, she never answered, she didn’t this time, but he suddenly just knew. He knew he needed to fall to show Aziraphale that there is not only black and white, good and evil. That there can be good found in the bad and vice versa and most importantly that Angels and Demons can work together.

Crowley had always accused god for abandoning him, for not checking on him anymore, for just throwing him out but lost in his own thoughts he realized that he had no right to be angry at her for this. She had sent him her kindest and loveliest Angel to stand at his side through all the millennia. After the fall he had been sure to never love again, he had been sure that this feeling had been burned away with the rest of his ethereal soul, but she had sent him Aziraphale and he had shown him what it meant to love an be loved in return.

He had always asked himself why she had allowed it. All the time he had been afraid that she would let the Angel fall. That she would punish Aziraphale for loving a Demon but somehow, he was sure now that she had never done anything against it because she wanted it to happen. Also, hell had never intervened, and he was sure that they would never have approved it if they had known. They also would not been happy if they would have figured out that most of his “achievements” had been created by humanity itself and that he had just spend an easy life, drinking wine with an Angel. But they never had. They never had checked on him, at least not really. Hastur walking by once or twice in a century couldn’t hardly be called as checking. And somehow, he believed that God had her hands in this as well.

In any other situation he would have smiled sadly. All this time the questions had been running around unanswered in his head, but it needed Aziraphales death for him to finally find the answers. He still wondered if God had something to do with him realizing all of it. Still one and maybe the most important question was still unanswered. Why? Why did he had to fall in love with his Angel, why had the Angel to love him, why did they had to go through all of this? What had changed because of that?

They had realized that they had a lot in common. They had realized that Angels and Demons were not so different at all. In fact, he had been an Angel once. And Aziraphale had showed him how to be at least partly an Angel again. He was no longer only a Demon, he was also an Angel, immune to holy water. Maybe that was what they needed to learn from it. That Angels and Demons are the same. And if they would realize that they should not fight each other but work together and love each other than they would find out that his would make them powerful than ever. That if they would just do the right thing and not the good or the evil one they could become invincible. And then neither holy water, nor hellfire, nor anything else that humans would come up with could hurt them and they would be able to guide humanity through all adversities. He had been loved by an Angel and had loved him in return and it had changed and saved him. But Aziraphale had been loved by a Demon …

“Fuck” Crowley called out, stumbling to his feet, his cramped legs let him stumble as he run out of his flat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it :-)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No worries, I'm still posting, just had a little bit more to do at work lately. So here we have chapter 6, the count went back to 8 chapters, and I will continue now with chapter 7 ;-)  
> Have fun!

Crowley was running like he‘d never run before. He could have miracled himself right outside the entrance or he could have taken the Bentley, but his clouded mind told him to run. He needed to feel his heart pounding violently in his chest, he needed his lungs burning for air and he needed his feet running faster than his thoughts.  
Aziraphale could still be alive, no Aziraphale was still alive, but he had abandoned him. He had lost faith and left him in this cold and evil place, the only things keeping him company being some corpses and some melted Demons. He had left him, he had left him alone when he had needed him the most. All this years they had stood side by side helped each other whenever needed and now this one time, this one time where it really mattered he had been such an idiot, such a coward, Aziraphale deserved so much better than him. 

He stopped a few meters before the entrance suddenly feeling afraid about what he would see if he stepped inside. Was Aziraphale still there? Did he vanish into a pile of dust? Had he already awakened and realized that Crowley was gone? That he had left him, that he had not stayed at his site until the very end as the Angel had done it? What if he had been in pain during the days or weeks that Crowley had spent mourning, unable to do anything about it. He should have stayed, he should …  
The pictures of Aziraphales burning body returned to his mind, his scared and agonized face, his screams. The smell of holy water and hellfire, pictures of dead Demons and again and again the screams. He should have saved him, he should have fight off the holy water faster, he shouldn’t have waited that long to follow him, if he had just acted faster he would have never heard those screams that kept tormenting him. Crowley took a deep breath, repressing the panic that raised in his chest.  
Slowly he walked into the pitch-black room, there was no light anymore, only his snake eyes allowed him to see something. His fingers trembled as he used a small miracle to flood the room with a dim light. The pictures he had fought off only a few moments ago came back within a second letting his whole-body tremble.  


“Angel” he whispered breathless as he stepped closer to Aziraphales body that still lay in the same way as he had left it. He sank to is knees, his shaking fingers softly touching Aziraphales face.  
“I’m so sorry Angel, I shouldn’t have left you, I should have stayed. But you will be alright, I promise, you will be alright.”  
Healing was usually an Angel-Thing, sure Demons could perform small healings or even bring small animals back to life but healing an ethereal creature that was nearly completely destroyed by hellfire was more than just a small challenge for Crowley.  
He closed his eyes and tried to touch the Angels soul, finding it weak and unresponsive but still there. A huge wave of relieve washed over him as he touched the soul with his own, sending it all the love he felt for him.

Crowley was panting heavily, a fine layer of sweat glistened at his forehead, his shirt was sticking to his skin and felt completely exhausted. He had spent the last two days healing every part of Aziraphales body, part by part, injury by injury. He was still kneeling by the Angels site, eyes closed in deep concentration as he heard the sound of breathing. A wave of relief washed through him, all tension left his body in this moment. His head thank onto the Angels breast listening to the first breaths. A sob escaped his mouth, followed by another until he cried openly letting out everything, holding tight to Aziraphale too afraid to let him go again.

He didn’t know when he had passed out into something between sleep and unconsciousness but as he slowly came back to awareness the first thing he felt was a hand caressing his hair, the second was the piecing cold that crept through his body that let him shiver violently. Strong arms wrapped around him in an instant the body beneath him started to warm up.  
“Don’t” Crowley murmured “you just died”  
“And you have been unconscious for five days after I woke up, don’t want to know how long you’ve been lying there with me.”  
The smell of fresh cotton irritated him for a moment also he could feel a blanked covered him. Crowley slowly opened his eyes realizing that they were back in their bed, their clothes and body clean and without any traces that they had been in any kind of fight. He was still lying on top of Aziraphale his hands clinging to the Angels shirt.  
“How?”  
“You did quite an amazing job, when I woke up I felt quite rested. It was a little bit difficult to get you out of there, as miracles just wouldn’t work, and you just wouldn’t let go but once out I could miracled us here. Talking about letting go, you know I love you close but could you please move? I haven’t felt my leg for the last days.”  
Crowley quickly moved from laying on top of his Angel and snuggled to his side still not ready to let go of him completely.  
“Sorry. You could have just moved me.”  
“Oh, be sure I tried, but you wouldn’t let me.” He could hear the smile in the Angels face even as he couldn’t see it.  
“And I won’t any time soon.” He wrapped his arm over the Angels hip and pulled himself closer.  
“What if I would offer a cup of tea and something to eat?”  
“You can get yourself everything that you can manage without leaving the bed.”  
“You will have to let me leave at some moment.”  
“No, I will never leave your site again. I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I know this is only a very short prologue but it took me a while to figure out how to start this story. So now having the first part finished the next chapters will be finished and updated soon :-)


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